


a dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down

by doxian



Series: Sports Anime Shipping Olympics (SASO) 2016 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Challenge: Sport Anime Shipping Olympics | SASO 2016, Hypnotism, M/M, Mermaids, Mind Control, Ocean, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:23:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7167290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doxian/pseuds/doxian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kageyama quietly steals out of the beach house, the moon is full and he can hear singing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down

**Author's Note:**

> written for the following prompt for SASO 2016 bonus round 1: [remember when Kageyama met siren!Suga?](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/13489.html?thread=3930545#cmt3930545)
> 
> title from The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud.

When Kageyama quietly steals out of the beach house, the moon is full and he can hear singing.

It's disgustingly late at night - or disgustingly early in the morning, depending on how you want to look at it. Kageyama can't sleep. Kageyama doesn't usually have any trouble falling asleep, but being in an unfamiliar place has him restless and antsy. Nothing is sitting right. His bed is comfortable, but it feels _wrong_. He's been tossing and turning for the better part of hours. He hates it. He's exhausted from the day's traveling and his body is bone-tired, but his mind won't let him rest.

The beach feels wrong, too. The waves are lapping gently at the shore and the sea and sand are bathed in moonlight, bright enough for Kageyama to see by. 

It's almost too perfect.

He walks down the stone steps. He curls his toes when he reaches the sand, letting the grains get in the spaces between them. The powdery softness is pleasant under the soles of his feet, as plush as a luxurious carpet. 

He had thought, for a moment, that he had mistaken the singing for the surge and splash of the waves, but someone is definitely singing. The sound merges with the murmur of the water, at times almost indistinguishable from it. It's wordless, sweet, and pure. 

Kageyama's feet take him along the coast. The world seems to shift - or maybe it's his perception of it that does - because suddenly he can't be sure that he's really awake. Part of him feels like he's still dreaming. A sort of calm settles over him, deep and irresistable. 

He ends up at a crop of rocks. He's lost track of how long he's spent walking, but suddenly he wants to stop, so he does. The cloying song seems to swell, here. It fills his ears; seeps into his pores until his entire body and its processes are moving in time to its rhythm. 

There's something silver glinting in the water. 

Kageyama watches it, mesmerized. He blinks, once, and the undefined irregularity resolves itself into scales and skin. A silver tail flicks - either coincidentally moving with the waves or sending one cresting with its motion, Kageyama isn't sure - and the mermaid pulls himself up onto one of the flatter rocks. He ensconces himself there, like he'd been lounging there ever since, like Kageyama's invading upon him and not the other way around. 

"Hello," says the mermaid.

Kageyama stares. 

His hair is silver, too, iridescent, just like his tail. His skin is white, almost ethereally so, smooth like a pebble whose rough edges have been worn away by the sea and the passage of time. He has a single beauty mark on one cheek.

All of these details seem irrevocably important. Kageyama has to commit all of them to memory so that he can picture them again in his mind's eye whenever he likes. A vague image isn't enough. He has to remember everything. The image has to be precise. It's the most important thing in the world.

"What's your name?" The mermaid asks, amicably. It's clear that he's the one who has been singing. He's singing still - he pauses every now and then to speak to Kageyama, but even these interruptions sound like a song.

Kageyama tells him his name. 

The mermaid's eyelashes are long and his mouth is very, very pink.

Kageyama doesn't recall taking the first step, but he's begun to walk closer.

"That's a pretty name. And what are you doing here, Kageyama?"

Kageyama's feet touch water. It's cold, ice cold on his skin, lovely and refreshing. 

"I'm on holiday with my family."

"Are you? How nice. How are you liking it so far?"

"It's alright. I like traveling with my family alright. There isn't - " his face scrunches up into a frown - "there isn't anywhere to practice volleyball here. It isn't the same on the sand."

The mermaid laughs - delicate, like a bell - and Kageyma is thrilled. 

"I'm sure it's not too bad," the mermaid says, "to take a break every now and then." 

He's right. Of course he's right. Where else would Kageyama be rather than here? What else would he rather be doing? Why would he ever think practicing volleyball is more important than talking to this creature?

He's in the water up to his calves, drawing even closer. He's close enough to see the spines along the mermaid's tail alongside his fins; the occasional cluster of limpets marring the expanse of his skin. 

The song rings out even louder. Kageyama doesn't know why he thought the beach felt wrong, before. Now, everything feels right.

He's submerged up to his waist. He and his clothes are sopping wet.

With a small, deceptively powerful flick of his tail, the mermaid dives back into the water. When his head breaks the surface again, he smiles at Kageyama - his teeth are bright, white, and sharp. Like razors, like diamonds.

Kageyama's heart is singing. Everything inside him and around him is urging him forwards, urging him to continue until he's in the creature's arms, bringing their mouths together and tasting the salt of ocean on the other's lips. The mermaid holds the answer to every question Kageyama has ever asked, but for now, Kageyama only needs an answer to one.

"What's," his mouth changes shape around the words, "what is your name?"

The mermaid doesn't answer. He just smiles, again, and Kageyama forgets what it was that he wanted to know.

"Come here," says the mermaid, his voice sonorous and smooth. If he wanted, Kageyama could reach out and touch him. 

"Yes," Kageyama says, and reaches.


End file.
